Well I've used a table that you have to remove the platter to change speed and it annoyed the shit out of me in about 1/2 hour. Too many unlabelled records where you have a 50% chance of getting it wrong, and if you play singles a lot like I do then it amplifies this problem. Speed box option means spend more money on a better table to me.

jameswolfe wrote:

doomedplanet wrote:

jameswolfe, how do you change from 33 to 45 on this deck? If you have to remove the platter to do it, for me that is a no-sale 100% of the time.

Yes you do. It really only takes a few seconds so its not much bother for me. And as drinks said you can get a speedbox to do it with the flick of a switch.

Well right now I'm not looking hard since I'm way too busy trying to find a replacement vehicle since insurance totalled out my truck after I hit a deer 2 weeks ago. But I looked a lot at that linear arm you mentioned awhile back
(lets look at this beauty again:
Trans-Fi Terminator air bearing

and I've thought I need to contact the vendor and see if anyone in Oregon has bought one, would be nice to see that beauty in action before going that direction.

drinks wrote:

Doomed I forgot what you were looking to spend, but the Pro-Ject Xperience Classic are now on sale for $200 off and are very nice turntables. You have to change the belt, but it's not under the platter so it's just a flick of the finger. Excellent 9cc tonearm included.

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way anymore. You can drop $3k on a VPI classic and still have to change the damn belt (unless you buy their $1k speed controller). Push-button speed change as standard is going extinct. And it's rather ridiculous.

I'm not adverse to an old table and get it serviced. Or a flick of a finger to move the belt isn't too bad either. But to have to remove the platter? Fuck no way.
[quote="drinks"]

doomedplanet wrote:

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way anymore. You can drop $3k on a VPI classic and still have to change the damn belt (unless you buy their $1k speed controller). Push-button speed change as standard is going extinct. And it's rather ridiculous.

Looking to upgrade my TT soon. Willing to spend up to $400, already have a Shure M97xE needle, less than 2 years old with regular use, so I don't think its time to replace that yet. Any suggestions? Want something that looks kind of sharp as well.

Looking to upgrade my TT soon. Willing to spend up to $400, already have a Shure M97xE needle, less than 2 years old with regular use, so I don't think its time to replace that yet. Any suggestions? Want something that looks kind of sharp as well.

That's just marketing speak for "less costly to produce". A single speed motor is cheaper than a variable speed, there's really no difference in number of "moving parts" or any difference in failure rate. It's cost cutting, plain and simple. And how else could they convince you to pay extra for the outboard speed controllers they sell?

edit:

Not to say the speed controllers aren't worthwhile, they certainly are (and some of Pro-Ject's are actually reasonably priced).

What do they do, exactly? Ive never seen them . Do they lower the voltage for to the turntable so it turns slower? If thats the case then a $1k for a two position variac is obscene bullshit

Need a record player that is high quality, sounds great, and ranges from 150-300$

Any suggestions??

In my opinion if you can find a used Technics SL1210 for that price then go for it. I picked up one a couple of years ago for £150 used and I have not looked back since. It's not the most aesthetically pleasing turntable, but it does the job and does it well.

It really depends what you are looking for in a turntable. If you want a turntable that is easy to setup, without having to mess around with belts etc then the Technics would probably suit you. I used to own an Original Live belt driven turntable which was fantastic, but cost me a lot and funny enough I ended up using the Technics a lot more and ended up selling the Origin Live.

For build quality and reliability the Technics suits me fine. If you can find one at $300 it may be a good option.

I have a problem with static in my house. My new player really picks it up whereas my old one must not have been so sensitive. I have a carbon fiber brush. A thin cork mat. And I have borrowed a Zero-stat gun. All things help a little but still lots of static. Any suggestions?_________________When pussy calls your name.....there's no way back.

Zerostat should take care of it if used correctly. The technique can be tricky to get down, it can add static if not done just right. Other than that, wet cleaning the records and using poly inners works wonders but not something you'll want/need to do for every lp. The cork shouldn't be a problem when I tried cork I got no excessive static (the cork mat on my vpi 16.5 doesn't either). Could try a rubber mat, I would personally go rubber/composite over cork on a metal platter anyway but it's down to preference.

technics 1200 has gone up to $500 ever since it's been discontinued. Rather go for 1610 or 1710 MKII's, they are internally identical, same drive, tonearm... and you can get them for about $150. They're semiautomatic which is bound to break but you don't really need that function.

The SL-1800mkII is fully manual. Yes the drive system on these decks is largely the same as the SL-1200 and they are very good for the money. They are however "pseudo-suspended" turntables and require more careful placement than a standard SL-1200 (but nowhere near as tweaky as a real suspended deck). The SL-16/17/1800 are still very solid and maintain compatibility with a lot of the mods/tweaks designed for the SL-1200 making them a very good buy. A really nice, boxed example will generally cost significantly more than $150 though.

I've begun having motor noise issues with my Project Debut III. The table is about 3 years old.

It's not a grounding issue, and doesn't get picked up by the stylus/tone arm (at least, not audibly to me) . It's definitely the motor, and the weird part is that the noise doesn't happen on start up... it takes a song or two, then during the break between songs I hear a quite loud and distracting constant "Whirring" sound. Any ideas what's causing this and a possible fix without having to bring it into the local audio shop ? Keep in mind that I'm not especially mechanically inclined with this type of thing .